Accountable Care Organizations - The big news came down recently as the Department of Health and Human Services released its final (and revised) rules regarding ACO’s. Alicia Caramenico at FierceHealthcare broke it down here and Karen M. Cheung, also of FierceHealthcare, then discusses the startup costs associate with ACO’s here. Meanwhile, Molly Gamble at ASC Review boils it down and offers up a list of Eight Things to Know About the ACO Final Rule. And with all of this ACO news we can’t help but feel inclined to look back and revisit the popular March 11, 2010 post by Jordan T. Cohen in Health Reform Watch titled A Guide to Accountable Care Organizations.

Social Media

As Buxton begins to roll out its Integrated Healthcare Marketing Services platforms which include social media analysis tools we started a small discussion about the value of social media analytics in healthcare here.

On Using Data (Big Brother Complex)

In honor of Halloween being around the corner The Wall Street Journal took a stab at creeping everyone out regarding the way data is used to help businesses (including healthcare providers). We would counter with the notion that from our perspective “Big Data” used properly does benefit the greater good and that that as it is being used consumer privacy can and must be respected. It brings to mind a McKinsey Global Institute study released earlier this year on the value of “Big Data” in organizational attempts to competitiveness and productivity. The jaw-dropping finding is that “If US health care were to use big data creatively and effectively to drive efficiency and quality, the sector could create more than $300 billion in value every year.”

On the Flu

We leave you with a link to a recent graphic on our blog which reveals the top urban markets for per-capita spending on over the counter flu treatments. These would be great markets to double down on vaccinations.

Follow us on Twitter @Buxtonco and have a great weekend!